Lucas C. Barger 
Life on a Rocky Farm [EPUB ebook] 
Rural Life near New York City in the Late Nineteenth Century

Life on a Rocky Farm couples Lucas C. Barger’s (1866–1939) eye for detail with a folksy, anecdotal style to give us a remarkable and memorable depiction of both the traditional ways of farm life, and the challenges the farmers faced as the times changed. Previously unpublished, Barger’s first-hand account of farm life near New York City begins in the late nineteenth century. Little had changed for well over a century in the hilly and rugged terrain of Putnam Valley, where Lucas grew up as a member of the sixth generation of Barger farmers. But as the nineteenth century gave way to the twentieth, industrialization and mechanization decreased the demand for farm labor and farmers had to come up with alternate ways to make money.



For a long time, supplemental income came from varied means such as beekeeping and using the local forest resources to provide railroad ties, ship timber, and barrel hoops. Wealthy summer boarders from New York City also provided some extra income, but despite the short distance, transportation remained arduous, and population growth did not occur until high improvements were made in the 1930s.



Peter A. Rogerson’s transcription reflects the flavor of Barger’s original writing, as Barger himself said when he was first attempting to publish back in 1939, ‘I read something along back, that a publisher wrote, and he said, ‘Do not change your style.’ He claimed the style was sometimes the best part. And I guess that is what you are getting at. If you can call my scribbling a style, and you think it
‘odd’ use it any way you like. For my main intentions were to write an
odd book as I told you once before.’

Jadual kandungan

Foreword by the Author

Preface

Acknowledgments

Editor’s Introduction

Sources



1. Introduction



People of Putnam Valley

Exodus of Youth as a Cause of Abandoned Farms

Successful Farmer on Smooth Farm in Rocky Country


2.What Grandpop Said



3. Handcrafts—Ways of Making Money



Ship Timber

Cordwood

Railroad Ties

Tanbark

Handles

The Axe

Baskets

Hoop Poles

Charcoal

The Squaw Man



4. Incomes Directly from Nature



Furs

Nuts

Roots and Herbs

Bees

Honey from Bees

Sheep

Turkeys

Chickens

Fruits and Vegetables

Vinegar

Dried Apples

Maple Syrup

Other Income—Summer Boarders



5. Life of the Rocky Farm Women



Griddlecakes, etc.

Foods

Women Fishing

Making Bread

Wife Instructs Husband Variously

Picking Geese

Women’s Work—Flax

Woolen Goods

Women—Smoking

Knitting

Knitting Sheath (“Shathe”)

Dress Fashions (Men’s and Women’s)

Dyeing—Children’s Work, etc.

Making Soap

Lighting Facilities

Matches and Fire

House Cat



6. Life of the Rocky Farm Men



Planting

Sowing Grain

Swamps and Marshes—Cranberries, Blueberries, Garden Truck

Poison Sumac and Poison Ivy

Farmer’s Breakfast

Comparison of Western and Eastern Farming



7. Sports and Animals



Hunting

Fish—Eels

Game—Quails

Game—Pigeon

Game—Squirrels and Rabbits

Game—Partridge

Game—Woodchuck

Game—Skunk

Snakes

Various Animals



8. Country Store and Election



Country Store

Election



9. Education, Religion, and War



The Red Schoolhouse

Religion and War



10. Frolics



Frolics (Bees)

The Buckwheat Frolic

Corn-Husking Frolic



11. The County Fair



12. Social Life



Church Socials

Weddings

Dance, Music

Valentines



Appendix I. Country Dialect

Appendix II. The Visit

Appendix III. The Quilting Frolic

Mengenai Pengarang

Peter A. Rogerson is Distinguished Professor of Geography at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York. He is the author of several books, including
Statistical Methods for Geography: A Student’s Guide. He lives in Amherst, New York.